The costs of ignoring the real immigration issue
It is more than ironic that on Labor Day, the Trump administration is targeting Essential Workers for mass deportation, regardless of the damage to our economy and our country.
How we got here is a story rooted in demonizing immigrants on the campaign trail, while at the same time making false promises to only go after the dangerous criminals among the undocumented, the so-called “worst of the worst.” But rather than using targeted actions, ICE has been ordered to arrest and deport anyone who is undocumented, bad record or not. In fact, ICE is under a 3000 per day arrest quota, a figure that cannot be met by arresting only those with bad criminal records.
While Congress has funded ICE with a massive budget, there has been no legislative action to give essential workers a legal way to enter the US.
The result:
A massive ICE budget for enforcement
Hasty recruitment, hiring and training of ICE officers who have used unjustified force and so far have killed people in multiple states
Termination of TPS (Temporary Protected Status) for virtually all nationalities, based on faulty claims that it now is safe for those with TPS to return to their home countries (e.g. Haiti, one of the most dangerous countries in the world)
Massive backlogs in immigration court dockets, with numbers of deportees as the only gauge of how the system is performing
Orders from the Attorney General (who employs all of the Immigration Judges) for IJs to deport as many people as possible
Assignment of JAG officers with no immigration background and only minimal training, to serve as “temporary” IJs
Use of group hearings in deportation court, which effectively prevents immigrants from understanding or participating meaningfully in the proceedings
Requiring respondents in removal proceedings to show virtually impossible levels of hardship to US citizen family members before a removal case can be cancelled
Generating significant litigation in Federal Court, with the judges there overruling the immigration courts repeatedly for violating the due process rights of immigrants, for interpreting US immigration law in irrational terms, etc.
Worker shortages in industries that depend on Essential Workers
Reduced Social Security contributions from these workers (even though they cannot ever receive any SS payments)
Immigration reform goes back decades and has occurred at irregular intervals due to major economic or political forces. Each time reform passed, it addressed multiple issues.
For a list of reasons, what Congress has not done since 1964 is to deal with the lack of a legal way for essential workers to enter the US so that they can work temporarily in year round jobs that do not require a college education; i.e., basically manual labor. They are called essential workers because our economy cannot function without them. It is universally agreed that we have a shortage of these skilled and unskilled workers in our domestic labor supply. That shortage is due in large part to the widespread belief that a college education is necessary to enter the workforce and be successful. That emphasis has meant that support for workers in the trades has languished, while at the same time immigration enforcement has been ineffective in preventing essential workers from entering the US.
Whenever advocates call for reform, those opposing it claim that we have to seal the border first; i.e., it’s an either/or choice, not a both/and. With the current administration, we now see the results of an enforcement-only policy. Enhanced enforcement has become the most broadly supported domestic policy issue, both as a matter of rhetoric and in terms of financial commitment.
We had a law from 1942 to 1964 that allowed essential workers to enter the US, but since then, Congress has failed again and again to address the fact that the demand for such workers greatly exceeds the domestic supply of that labor. So instead of changing the law to bring it into the 21st Century, we have fought over how money much should ICE receive to perform its enforcement function properly; how much training should ICE officers receive; how much and what kind of notice should immigrants receive before being deported; can a hearing be done properly if there are too many respondents being addressed at the same time; is the hardship imposed on US citizen or permanent resident spouses, parents or children of the non-citizen sufficient to cancel the case?
All of these issues are important, but none focuses on what caused the vast majority of “those people” to be here without authorization: the lack of a visa category for essential workers.
The people in the US population who support and enforcement only policy is proper say that they just hate to see the deaths, the loss of good workers and its impact on the local and national economy, and the destruction of immigrant families, but flatly reject the idea of Congressional action until “the borders are sealed.” But no border can ever be sealed perfectly. This is simply a way to avoid making hard decisions and, instead, to support a policy that in essence deports anyone who lacks legal status, which in turn is the result of Congress failing to take action.
It is the essence of a Catch-22.
Those who favor an enforcement only policy give praise to immigration lawyers, saying “those people” are lucky to have such good lawyers to defend them. But having immigration lawyers do their job does not address the underlying problem with our dysfunctional system; that praise is just a way to justify having such a horribly outdated system.
In recent years, legislation has been introduced repeatedly to fix the problem. Members of both parties have introduced the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act (EWEAA) but it has languished in committee each time it has been introduced. Another proposal would allow states to sponsor workers in coordination with federal immigration agencies (the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act).
But Congress has not moved forward with these reform bills, and Congressional inaction allows ICE to continue damaging the economy, weakening Social Security, destroying mixed families, and normalizing violence against good people who have no criminal records.
This administration does not care about the damage to our communities, our economy, and our national character that is being caused by enforcement only policies.
What can you do?
Contact your member of the House of Representatives and tell them to support the EWEAA, and your member of the US Senate and tell them to support the State Sponsored Visa Act. Only Congress can take action that will stop or at least slow the damage. Only we can make our representatives understand that we support common sense reform legislation, and that it must not be conditioned on some pie in the sky notion of a “sealed border.”
We now see the results of an enforcement only approach to immigration, and it is horrifying on all levels. Make your voice heard and make it heard now.
Gerry Chapman
Board Certified Immigration Law Specialist (1997-present)
September 6, 2026
